Middle School Perseverance Watch Party

Middle School science teachers Stephen Harris and Jon Vanegas hosted a watch party for students interested in following NASA’s rover Perseverance on its descent to—and successful landing on—the surface of Mars. Below are some highlights from the joyful, science-minded, and often hilarious Zoom chats. You can also watch the final minutes of the descent in split screen with NASA footage and the watch party (touchdown at 3:08).

Luke:    i'm so stressed i feel like it will blow up

Jon Vanegas (he/him):    It’s going to PERSEVERE

viktor:    Pls let perseverance persevere

Jon Vanegas (he/him):    10 Earth G’s = 10 x Earth’s gravity = about 98 m/s (which is A LOT)

Maceo:    THE PARACHUTE IS DEPLOYED

Ava:    yayyyy!! Almost there

Maceo:    YES!

eva:    PLEASE DON'T EXPLODEEEEEEE

Natalie:    IT LANDED

Brend0n:    Ladies, gentlemen, boys, and girls, we did it. 🤩 😎 🤩

Jon Vanegas (he/him):    You see, math and science = super important! Precision and accuracy!

Maceo:    MATH IS EPIC

Jacob:    It has landed!!

RYAN (-_-):    woohoo!!!!woohoo!!!!woohoo!!!!woohoo!!!! [abridged]

eva:    7 MINUTES OF TERROR

Matias:    HAPPIER THAN WINNING KAHOOT

Spencer:    IT DIDN'T BLOW UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Many many many woohoos]

[More woohoos]

[So many]

Jon Vanegas (he/him):    YAY PERSEVERANCE!

Brend0n:    Where da party supplies at!?!

eva:    IMAGEE!

William:    i saw it

Matias:    That’s one gray picture

Matias:    Wow we could send it to Mars but can’t get colours

Brend0n:    I gotta celebrate

William:    to imagine there is a human built robot that cost billions 127 million miles away

RYAN (-_-):    Matias, when you can send something to Mars then you put colors on the camera

Matias:    They are going to Mars to fix the color issue

Maceo:    Wow this is super fun

Maceo:    NASA WORKS GASP

Jon Vanegas (he/him):    All jokes aside - this took A LOT of hard/advanced math, science, and, overall, collaboration

Jon Vanegas (he/him):    Let’s not forget it was done during a pandemic!

eva vinik:    thanks stephen and jon bye

Maceo:    THANK YOU ALL TEACHERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brend0n:    Thank you so much for all of this!